London

As I mentioned in the previous entry, Melanie and I were only in Budapest for a brief amount of time before heading to London. In all honesty, I think we were too excited to be going back to London to do Budapest justice. Although I was excited to be seeing London for my third time, Melanie was particularly stoked to be going back to her second home. She studied there when she was an undergraduate student a few years ago while I was studying in Paris. We kept referring to our trip to London as a vacation from our vacation as we have both been there before and we couldn't wait to be back for a number of reasons. Among which were: the British accent, good Indian food, Strongbow, fish & chips, the fashion, cute boys, colder weather, and the clubs. 

We arrived in London on Thursday and took the bus to our hostel in the Swiss Cottage area. After settling into our room we found a nearby pub and got our fish & chips and Strongbow right away. Heavenly. With a bit of a buzz on we wandered around our neighborhood to see what was around then went back to our hostel to hang out in the pub downstairs before going to sleep.

The following morning we went to Camden which is a nearby area filled with funky clothing shops, thrift stores and restaurants. After a while I forgot that we were in London and not back on Haight in SF. The two are so similar! After Camden we decided to hop on the tube and go to Mel's old stomping grounds near High Street Kensington. We got probably the best Indian food of our lives for lunch around the corner from her old flat, visited her old flat, then walked past Hyde Park on our way to Top Shop and Urban Outfitters. That evening we went to dinner near our hostel and then went out to The World's End pub in Camden at night where we bumped into a group of 18-year old Swedish boys who were clearly Swedish. That sentence is entirely redundant simply to emphasize how stereotypically Swedish they were. A group of blonde haired, blue eyed, clean shaven boys bearing all too uncanny a resemblance to Draco Malfoy and named Thor. Yes, there was a boy named Thor. Come on. Although they made Melanie and I feel like creepy lady pedophiles, we had a good time with Thor and his posse of Malfoys. We stumbled back to our hostel high on life (and cider) and hit the hay.

Saturday we intended to go to Portobello Market in Notting Hill, but the line we needed to take wasn't working so we wound up on Bond Street at Primark instead. Primark, oh glorious Primark. Imagine Forever21 with Wal-Mart prices. It was chaos. I bought myself a pair of oxfords for 8 pounds. My first and hopefully last clothing purchase in Europe. We then hopped back on the tube and went to Borrough Market by London Bridge for lunch. Borrough Market is essentially a farmers market in that there are loads of different food stalls offering a variety of foods. As true Bay Area residents, Melanie and I found the organic food stand and got delicious vegetarian meals for lunch. Me eating organic, you're so surprised, right? Not. That night Melanie and I met a couple of guys at our hostel and went to an amazing club called Ministry of Sound. After dancing for hours and being creeped on by a dude who spoke questionable English and whose sobriety was equally questionable, we caught a taxi home and passed out.

Sunday we met up with Flavia and Philip who are now LIVING in LONDON! Lucky bastards. With Philip as our tour guide we wandered around the British Museum where we saw the Rosetta Stone and bits and pieces of the Parthenon among other cool things. We then headed over to UCL (University College London) where Philip will be starting on his Masters in Pretention in the fall. We grabbed lunch and said our goodbyes as it started to rain in London. Boo, but not surprising. We just hung around our hostel that night as we headed to Lisbon the next day.

During our stay we also went to St. Paul's Cathedral, Millennium Bridge and Covent Garden. 

We have been in Lisbon for 2 days now and are leaving tomorrow. Melanie goes back to California tomorrow whereas I take the train to Porto for a night and then fly to Rome early Friday. Looks like I'll be riding solo. It's like S-O-L-O. S-O-L-O.

 Camden

On the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral

St. Paul's Cathedral

London Bridge from Millennium Bridge

Big Ben

Our hostel

The Rosetta Stone at the British Museum

Statue of Newton (can't remember where)

Budapest, Hungary

After Berlin and almost a week in Germany, Melanie and I flew to Budapest. Our time in Budapest is difficult to describe even for ourselves not only because we were there for such a short period of time, but also because Budapest itself is hard to describe. For the first time in my life I found myself feeling a little vulnerable, because of my lack of any understanding whatsoever of the language. Romance languages are easy, because they all share similarities being that they all derive from Latin. Once you learn French you can pick up on Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. Also, being that English is a Germanic language, German wasn't impossible to pick up on during our stay. However, Hungarian...Hungarian...44 letters in the alphabet, similar to no other languages except maybe Finnish. Needless to say and much to my frustration as a language geek, the only words I picked up in the 2 days we were there were "hi" and "bye" or "see-ya and "hallo", respectively (not even kidding). However, despite the language barrier we really did enjoy our stay in the city.

We arrived Tuesday evening to our wonderful hostel, which was actually more of an apartment in the center of Budapest. The hostel, Downtown Oasis, is a large 3 bedroom apartment that has been converted into a hostel run by the kindest young woman named Judit. Another great thing about Hungary (maybe not in the opinion of the Hungarians) is the exchange rate. For roughly $20/night Melanie and I had our own bedroom with hardwood floors, a double bed, armoir, dresser, huge bathroom, washer/dryer, coffee/tea, and a balcony that overlooked one of the busier streets of Budapest. That evening Judit recommended a nearby restaurant that served traditional Hungarian food, and she gave us a coupon for the restaurant and a coupon for one free beer. We love Judit. The food was delicious! We headed back to our hostel afterwards to get some sleep before doing a walking tour the following morning.

Wednesday morning we headed to Vorosmarty Square to meet up with our guides for another free walking tour. Budapest is quite a small city, two cities really as Buda and Pest are situated across the Danube River from one another connected by a number of bridges. We stayed on the Pest side near Deak Square where all of the action is. The two tour guides took us all around Pest first showing us the main sites such as the breathtaking St. Istvan Bazilika among others (pictures when I have better internet), then we crossed to the ritzier Buda side via the Szechenyi chainbridge. On the Buda side you find the Liberty Statue, the Royal Palace, and Matthias Church. To reach all three you have to climb to the top of the Buda hills. It's quite strenuous but once you reach the top, the view of all of Pest is amazing. You can see the stunning Parliament Building on the edge of the Danube as well as the numerous bridges connecting the two sides and the National Museum.

After our tour was done we headed back to the hostel to nap after grabbing a quick bite to eat at a gyros stand. The travel blog that I have been following religiously for months, Mr. Mrs. Globetrot wrote about and highly recommended a public bathhouse in Budapest, the Szechenyi bath so I knew we had to go, especially after doing so much walking during our trip. The bathhouse did not disappoint. For about $12 you get access to about 10 different indoor pools of all different temperatures (we hung out in the hot ones) and to the gorgeous heated outdoor pool in addition to a locker. Not only that, but my tattoo on my back encouraged two French AirFrance flight attendants to come up to us and ask "Are you French?" in English no less. It was nice to have a little R&R and meet some nice people after two long walking tours in Berlin and Budapest. That evening we found an even cheaper yet just as delicious Hungarian restaurant where we ate a huge meal and drank to our heart's content for just over $6. Gotta love that exchange rate!

In retrospect we should have stayed longer in Budapest, because I feel as though we barely scratched the surface of Budapest, given that our friend Tim from Berlin referred to it in his adorable English accent as a "den of debauchery". However, Melanie and I are already planning another Eurotrip 2 years from now so maybe we'll return to Budapest and engage in various illicit activities.

We are now in London having got here last night and having a great time. We are here until Monday and after London, Lisbon!

Berlin, Germany

Friday morning Melanie and I said goodbye to Dusseldorf. We enjoyed our time spent at the adorable Hotel Haus Hilleshein which was run by the nicest people ever. Before I get too far into this post, I would just like to say that I don't know how the stereotype of the unfriendly German arose (well, I kind of do...that whole Nazi thing certainly put a damper on foreigners' perception of Germans...hmm), but so far that's all it has been, a stereotype. Everyone we've encountered either in Dusseldorf or Berlin has been extremely welcoming and warm, particularly when we make an effort to use the little German that we know. Even the TSA man at security in Dusseldorf complimented me on my necklace. I guess people just respond well to respect and kindness? What a notion! Anyways, we left Dusseldorf for Berlin on Friday. We weren't far from our hostel so we took a cab to our hostel the Jetpackers Downtown Berlin.

After checking into our hostel we decided to walk around and get to know the area. We are staying in a quaint neighborhood in former west Berlin. There are shops, cafes and restaurants everywhere you go. Since we've been in Germany we have certainly been eating well. Between Dusseldorf and Berlin we've eaten Thai food, Italian food, Japanese food, Indian food, Greek food, German food (currywurst, ja!), ice cream, and of course, as two admitted coffee addicts, drank gallons of milchkaffee and espresso. My preconceived notion that I'd be eating twice a day and mainly from markets to save money hasn't come to fruition as most of our  meals here have been well under 10 Euro each. Danke schoen, Deutschland!

Yesterday morning we got up early, because the people working in our hostel told us about a free walking tour that takes you all around the major must-see sites in Berlin. After mastering the public transport system, we arrived at Branderburg Gate where the tour was to start in front of a Starbucks, which was right next to a Dunkin' Donuts (Really, America? Really, Germany?). Our tour guide, Jonny, moved from England to Berlin in November, because he was so in love with the city, and, bonus, he majored in European history. Presto, amazing FREE tour of Berlin. Winning! Over the period of 4 hours Jonny led us around the major sites (below are pictures) and was so knowledgeable of the history of each of them. Although Melanie and I were the only Americans on the tour and thus had to take some blows from Jonny much to the amusement of the rest of the tour go-ers, the tour was very informative and entertaining. It really made me fall in love with this crazy/beautiful city. I am totally learning German and moving here someday.

Today, Melanie and I decided to check out the former east Berlin, because we had heard from numerous people that they preferred it over former west Berlin. Maybe we didn't go far enough, but I didn't find it particularly beautiful, interesting or even weird. The buildings were plain (duh, it used to be communist east Berlin). A lot of the younger hipper people live in east Berlin, I'm told, but I didn't like it very much, although Melanie did. Maybe they're trying to be ironic by living in an area filled with plain buildings instead of the gaudy, glamorous west Berlin. So decadent, ugh.

Tomorrow: Budapest!

 Brandenburg Gate

Memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe

Apartment buildings where the SS lived;

Below our feet is Hitler's bunker

Nazi headquarters, swastika flags used to hang between those columns

Nazi HQ again. It's now used as a tax buildings so Berliners

can continue to hate it.

The Berlin Bear is everywhere. Like the hearts in SF.

Remains of the Berlin Wall

 Remains of the Berlin Wall

Recreation of Check Point Charlie

Recreation of the sign at Check Point Charlie. The same frame is used from the original.

At Gendarmenmarkt

Gendarmenmarkt, Huguenot church straight ahead

French Huguenot church in Gendarmenmarkt

Das Konzerthaus in Gendarmenmarkt

Melanie posing in Bebelplatz, where the Nazi book burnings happened in 1933

Bebelplatz

In the middle of Bebelplatz there is an empty underground library meant to represent the amount of books burned. They could have filled up all of those shelves.

Statue of a mother cradling her dying son. Meant to represent the horrors of war.

The Berliner Dom

More bears

Winged Victory

TV Tower in former east Berlin

Currywurst

Dusseldorf, Germany

Hello all! Melanie and I arrived safely in Dusseldorf, Germany yesterday around 2 pm local time. We took a cab to our hostel, which is quite possibly the most adorable place I've ever stayed in my entire life. We are staying in a little room complete with a double bed, a little table and chairs, and a shower and sink ensuite. Not only that but the room comes with a television. We are definitely roughing it. The first time we turned on the TV late last night, the first channel to come on was a porn channel. Ah, Europe, I've missed you. Outside of our room is a little garden area. Given the porn channel, the cute garden, and the quiet locale we're starting to think that our hostel is a little honeymoon getaway. We kind of are on our honeymoon, too, Mel and I. Ah, love.

After getting set up in our room yesterday we decided to go find a place to eat. Neither of us knew too much about Dusseldorf, given that the reason we decided to fly here in the first place was because the flight from SF was under $400, but as it turns out, Dusseldorf is adorable and has tons of cafes, restaurants and shops. Normal, IL, take note. We ate dinner and drank amazing mojitos outside at a cute restaurant near our hostel. Although neither of us speak German, it hasn't been difficult to communicate, and, funnily enough, a couple speaking Russian sat down next to us at a cafe and were commenting on how delicious my pasta looked. Even though my Russian is a little rusty, it was fun talking it again. Fun fact, the man we were talking to was a part of the Bosnian resistance once-upon-a-time and the woman used to live in LA. Small world.

This morning we woke up early sans too much jet lag and went to get breakfast at a cute cafe nearby. We have come to discover that food and drinks here in Dusseldorf are beyond reasonable. A croissant, yogurt and coffee cost only 5 Euro. Fueled and ready we decided to explore the city. The architecture here is beautiful. Lots of buildings look as though the buildings in London and buildings in SF got together and procreated. True story. Speaking of procreation, the men in Dusseldorf are G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S. It must be a pretty business oriented city, because every where you turn you see handsome men dressed in three-piece suits. So beautiful. I feel like a teenage boy doing a double take every time a guy walks by. It's not even funny. The women here are nothing to write home about, though. Maybe all the attractive women are hiding in Berlin (or subletting my apartment in IL *cough* Amke *cough*).

Another point goes to Dusseldorf for having an amazing Indian restaurant located around the corner from our hostel. 7 Euro for delicious chicken curry, naan, and a beer. Germany, ich liebe you.

Tomorrow is our last day in Dusseldorf and then we fly to Berlin for 3 days. For now, I've got to go sit out in the garden with my best friend while we paint our nails and drink a bottle of wine. Life's tough in Europe.

Tschuss!

 You don't hassle the Hoff!